AP Physics C – Electricity and Magnetism
Syllabus
Niskayuna High School
Instructor: Mr. DeLano
About the Class
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AP Physics C is a course designed by the College Board and is equivalent to a
first year college course in Physics. This course utilizes guided inquiry and
student-centered learning to foster the development of critical thinking skills.
Students enrolled in the course should expect to engage in research projects
through the semester. It is designed for students that plan on majoring in
engineering or science and have previously taken Honors Physics at the high
school level. The course is designed to be calculus-based, so students enrolling in
the course must have previously taken Calculus or are concurrently enrolled.
The course is broken into two parts. Mechanics will be taught in the first
semester of school year, with the Electricity and Magnetism section to follow in
the second semester.
All Students enrolled in the course are expected to take AP Physics C Electricity
and Magnetism exam in May.
Class will meet according to the high school block schedule. 10 days per school
week, meeting 5 times for 80mins and 4 times for 40mins
Laboratory activities are an important piece of the class. Each student must
complete all laboratory activities each semester.
Text
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Fundamentals of Physics, Halliday, Resnick, and Walker: 7th ed. New York: John
Wiley and Sons
*All text book assignments will be from the Halliday/Resnick/Walker text. It will be
referred to as HR Text throughout the syllabus.
Additional References
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AP Physics C Review book. Any book that you choose. Should be purchased by
December 20th.
AP Physics Lab Guide, J Patrick Polley, College Board 2003
Grade
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Final grade for each semester will be determined on an earned points basis. The
approximate grade breakdown is as follows:
Written Assessments 35%
Homework/Research 25%
Lab
20%
Final Exam
20%
E and M Labs
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All labs must be complete to receive credit for the class. They are due 4 school
days after the data taking has completed. 5% late penalty per day will be assessed
Each lab is extensive and may take up to 3 – 80min blocks to complete.
Approximately 25% of instruction time will be devoted to laboratory activities.
In each lab, students are required to design their own experimental setup based on
class discussions, and analyze and correct for any experimental errors. An asterisk
(*) shows computer based simulation labs that use Crocodile Physics Software.
All labs must be typed and follow the lab report format
Labs are as follows:
1) Electric Field/Force
2) Modeling Circuits*
3) Ohm’s Law I
4) Ohm’s Law II
5) Electrical Power and Batteries I
6) Electrical Power and Batteries II
7) RC Time Constants I
8) RC Time Constants II
9) Magnetic Fields I
10) Magnetic Fields II
11) RLC Circuits*
(Class Handout)
(Crocodile Physics)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(AP Physics Lab Guide)
(Crocodile Physics)
E and M Topics
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Electrostatics
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Conductors, Capacitors, and Dielectrics
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(HR Text chapter 28)
Includes: Permanent Magnets, Dipoles, Field lines, Hall Effect, Dipole Moment, Right
Hand Rules, Domains
Electromagnetism
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(HR Text chapters 26-27)
Includes: Current, Ohm’s Law, Resistance, Energy, Power, Kirchoff’s Rules, RC
Circuits, Measuring Current/Voltage
Magnetic Fields
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(HR Text chapters 23-25)
Includes: Gauss’ Law, Capacitors, Electric Potential, Conductors, Different Shape
Capacitors, Energy Stored, Dielectrics, Series and Parallel Connections
Electric Circuits
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(HR Text chapters 21-22)
Includes: Coulomb’s Law, Conductors and Insulators, Conservation of Charge, E-Field,
Charge distributions, Field Lines, Dipoles Gauss’ Law, Flux Density
(HR Text chapters 29-32)
Includes: Magnetic Force, Ampere’s Law, Biot-Savart Law, Solenoids and Toroids,
Faraday’s Law, Lenz’s Law, Inductance, RL circuits, Motors and Generators, Energy
stored, Maxwell’s Laws